Police: Truck illegally parked in fatal accident

Updated 11:51 pm, Thursday, December 13, 2012

Joseph Pierson of Congress Street in Stamford, Conn. died when his Nissan Sentra struck the right rear of a tractor-trailer parked on the left shoulder of the entrance ramp to the Interstate 95 southbound rest area in Fairfield, Conn. late Wednesday Dec 12, 2012. less

Joseph Pierson of Congress Street in Stamford, Conn. died when his Nissan Sentra struck the right rear of a tractor-trailer parked on the left shoulder of the entrance ramp to the Interstate 95 southbound rest ... more

Truck driver Eli Nin of Passaic, NJ, practices his saxophone while parked in the truck parking area at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. Nin said that Connecticut's rest stop situation is better than others in the tri-state region surrounding New York City. less

Truck driver Eli Nin of Passaic, NJ, practices his saxophone while parked in the truck parking area at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. Nin said that Connecticut's rest ... more

Swift Transportation truck driver Evan Omdahl parks illegally on the shoulder as he eats his breakfast at the southbound I-95 rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. A fatality occurred when a car crashed into a parked truck in the same location on Wednesday night. less

Swift Transportation truck driver Evan Omdahl parks illegally on the shoulder as he eats his breakfast at the southbound I-95 rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. A fatality occurred when a ... more

Truck driver Eli Nin of Passaic, NJ, practices his saxophone while parked in the truck parking area at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. Nin said that Connecticut's rest stop situation is better than others in the tri-state region surrounding New York City. less

Truck driver Eli Nin of Passaic, NJ, practices his saxophone while parked in the truck parking area at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. Nin said that Connecticut's rest ... more

Truck driver Gene Stoms of Elmer, NJ, stops for a coffee and some breakfast at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. The rest stop was the site of a fatality on Wednesday night when a car crashed into a parked truck. less

Truck driver Gene Stoms of Elmer, NJ, stops for a coffee and some breakfast at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. The rest stop was the site of a fatality on Wednesday ... more

Truck driver Mark Broadway discusses the parking situation at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. The rest stop was the site of a fatality on Wednesday night when a car crashed into a parked truck. less

Truck driver Mark Broadway discusses the parking situation at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield on Thursday, December 13, 2012. The rest stop was the site of a fatality on Wednesday night when a car ... more

FAIRFIELD -- Evan Omdahl parked his tractor trailer on the left shoulder of the Interstate 95 service plaza here Thursday morning, less than 12 hours after a Stamford man was killed near the same spot.

Omdahl's big rig rolled to a stop in front of a "No Parking" sign on the left shoulder of the southbound rest area. It was almost like the sign was invisible.

State police said the truck that Joseph Pierson, 40, slammed into here Wednesday night was also illegally parked. No charges have been filed and the crash remains under investigation.

Pierson was pronounced dead at the scene after his Nissan Sentra struck the right rear of the parked tractor trailer and the left side of an SUV that was also entering the service plaza. Pierson's car ended up under the truck, and Fairfield firefighters had to extricate him from the wreckage.

The fatal crash was the second between a truck and car in an I-95 rest stop here in less than last two weeks. Across the highway on Dec. 1, a car hit a parked tractor-trailer at the rest area on the northbound side of I-95. The truck driver, who was asleep, was killed.

Omdahl, a driver for Long Island-based Swift Transportation Co., said he doesn't like to sleep on the shoulder of an I-95 rest stop.

"Sometimes you have no choice," he said. "There's not enough truck parking.''

In Wednesday night's crash, truck driver Joseph Eutsey told state police he had pulled onto the shoulder and climbed into the sleeper compartment of his cab to rest for awhile.

There is a parking area for tractor trailers in the rear section of the rest stop, behind and to the south of the main building.

The trouble is there aren't enough spots in the designated lot, said Gene Stoms, a driver for MNB Trucking in Elmer, N.J.

"It's not just here. There's never enough (truck) parking," Stoms said. "I came up from New York and you don't have a choice after the George Washington Bridge. You pull into a rest area, and sometimes, you have to park on the shoulder.''

Trucks sometimes park along the highway on-ramps when the service areas are full, Stoms said.

Eli Nin, of Passaic, N.J., was having a late breakfast in the cab of his truck and playing his saxophone. The driver for T.J. Maxx said all of I-95 is "tight'' through Connecticut, not just the service plazas.

"But there's no more room, nowhere to go,'' he said.

A driver for Jagim Transportation Inc. in Pennsylvania, who declined to give his name, said parking for tractor-trailers is bad throughout New England. The situation improves in the southern states, he said, starting in Virginia. But Connecticut particularly lacks parking for trucks longer than 48 feet.